Mission: Outback
by Wolfje
Summary: The places you get to see and situations you end up in when you're a Gundam rebel... A simple little 1 2 drabble of one of the many missions at the beginning of the war.


**Disclaimer:** The places you get to see and situations you end up in when you're a Gundam rebel... A simple little 1+2 drabble of one of the many missions at the beginning of the war.

**Warnings:** Language (Duo pov, what else to expect)

**A/N:** Ok, just some major thanks for Kaeru Shisho for suggesting I'd use some of my recently gained outback experiences, suggestions and editing (the ducky dust is all hers!) Also many thanks for Waterlilylf for editing and adding some fun here and there. And no comments on cave cracks or such... (tries to look stern)

**_Lizzy & Maskelle, this is for you guys for being my GW buddies for many, many years now (miss you guys to bits!)_**

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**Mission: Outback**

As we hit the strange looking creature that had popped up from the dark, the bang that sounded was deafening. The impact made the battered old car bounce on its wheels and careen into a large rock just left of where the animal had been a second ago.

When our battered old army jeep came to a standstill, Heero and I both sat there as if we were made out of stone.

Maybe because moments before we had just crawled out from the between the jaws of hell, still fleeing from unseen enemies in dark, unfamiliar territory.

Maybe it was the lack of sleep we both suffered from. I knew I'd slept last over 48 hours ago. Heero had probably been going for much longer than that.

Or maybe it was because there was this terrible wheezing noise coming from somewhere next to the bumper. The sound sent shivers down my spine. I had seen enough deaths but this sound was something I never got used to.

'What was that..?' I stammered as I finally found my voice again.

'I'm guessing that was a kangaroo.' Of course he would know.

I stumbled out of the car, jumping down on uneven ground that was covered in fist sized rocks and some vegetation that rustled as I crushed it under my boots. I grabbed for the spotlight that I remembered Heero putting in the back of the car. Prepared for anything, as usual.

Heero. He was still sitting in the driver's seat. I swear his eyes were the size of saucers and his knuckles were white from his grip on the steering wheel.

For a moment I wondered if he break the thing in half... He probably could seeing as he could bend steel with his bare hands.

Then a soft whimper and another wheeze drew my attention again. I shone some more to my right and the column of bright light hit a furry grey coat.

One that was covered in blood and was heaving in a way I found very familiar, even if I had no experience with animals besides feral cats and dogs and the occasional brown rat.

I aimed the light so that I could see all of the creature lying there on the ground. Marveling at the long legs, pearshaped body and short little arms. And then when the light reached it's head I almost dropped it.

A pair of large liquid brown eyes, shining in the light I directed at them, stared at me. Pleading. Asking me a question I didn't understand. The long dark lashes fluttered as the body of the animal heaved and the kangaroo lay down it's head again.

I heard a sound behind me and felt the comforting presence of Heero standing near.

'It's a red kangaroo.' He volunteered.

Just great. We know the species, now what? 'Oh.' I said.

'We hit it while driving 80, at the least. It must be bleeding out on the inside.' His voice sounded, different, somehow. As if he cared. I don't think I'd heard it sound like that. Ever.

Those beautiful brown eyes looked up at us again and I swallowed. 'It's in pain.' I muttered.

'Yes.'

Well, very helpful. Now what?

'It seems the animal's legs are broken.' Heero had walked up further, standing next to me now. But he didn't move any more than that. Didn't solve the problem like he did so often. Like I wanted him to do now.

Wait... What did I hear there. Was that a... whisper?

I'm sure he muttered something under his breath. And it sounded a lot like 'you poor thing'. It seemed the perfect weapon of war really did have a soul.

I reached behind me at the kit located at the small of my back and held the spotlight out to my companion. 'Take this will ya, 'Ro?'

He took it without comment, seemingly lost for words and without a clue what to do about the suffering animal we had on our hands. Great.

I quickly knelt down besides the strange-looking, deer-like animal lying streched out on the rough ground, and screwed the silencer on my gun. I shut off my brain as best as I could before aiming right between the animal's eyes. Thank the Gods Heero was thoughtful enough to turn the spotlight away when I pulled the trigger.

The soft 'thump' of the silencer and a last release of breath was all we heard in the darkness that followed.

I stood up before the spotlight could return to the scene of the murder, because that was what it was to me. I killed yet again, but this was an innocent bystander, caught up in some human affairs it had noting to do with.

'How's the car?' Of course my eager little war buddy was already prying open the hood of the pile of junk on wheels. The killer machine. I quietly wondered if I had ever hit something with Deathscythe, ever left an animal lying somewhere to die, like this unfortunate kangaroo.

'We won't be able to fix it I'm afraid,' he said, his voice muffled from underneath a layer of metal. And then he said something I hadn't expected.

'Did you check the animal's pouch?'

I stared at him. 'Huh?'

He pulled his head from the deceased engine and looked at me in a way that was completely foreign to me. 'Did you check if it was a female? They carry their young in a pouch on their belly. Maybe it has a baby that survived the crash.'

And if it has what then? Did he seriously expect me to shoot an innocent baby kangaroo?

'So what if it has?' I asked, and the tone of my voice made me cringe. Cold as ice. 'Will you shoot it instead of leaving me to do your dirty work?' Oh yes, he'd been the one driving, I would not let him forget that!

He looked at me funny now. Was that surprise I saw there? Or shock maybe? 'No, I meant that we should take it. It will die out here all by itself. We could...'

He hesitated for a moment.

'We could bring it to one of those rescue places that they advertised in the last village.'

Well good Lord bless thee and kill me now! The guy that killed dozens of men and could bend steel with his bare hands wanted to save a baby kangaroo. I think I must have looked fairly strange, standing there with my jaw hitting the rocky ground.

'How do you-?' I stopped, thought for a moment and started again. 'How is it that you know all that about these animals? I mean, you come from the colonies, you should look at odd animals like that as I do, with wonder and amazement.'

He shrugged. Heero Yuy shrugged! Oh my God-pod-person alert! Again.

I was starting to feel a bit desperate about this whole ordeal. A small part of my brain wandered off and wondered why we hadn't been tracked down by our enemies yet.

'I did some reading regarding animals in the area of our mission target to see if there was anything we should be aware of.' He coughed. ' I sort of liked reading about the local wildlife. Kangaroos are... interesting.'

Did he just turn a bit darker there? Damn the lack of light.

He looked at me expectantly. He wanted me to do something now. Say something. Right?

'Duo?'

Jup, that's my name...

'The pouch?'

Oh, right!

I stopped then, turning towards him again and squinting my eyes in an accusing way I hoped looked menacing.

'Why should I do all of this? You hit the damn thing, not me.' Ok, so that was unfair but I suddenly didn't feel like following his orders.

He stared at me, eyes slightly wider than before. He opened his mouth to say something. Probably something nice and sweet. Not. Then he closed it again and just looked at me.

Or stared.

He really didn't want to do this, apparently. And he didn't even think of bullying me into doing it either. Odd time to sprout compassion for animals. Especially for him.

I turned my back on him and walked back to where the carcase must be, grumbling all the way of course. 'Ok, ok I'm on it. Geez, making me search the body of a deceased traffic victim. You're inhuman.'

From the corner of my eye I saw the slight movement indicating that he; dare I say, flinched? I retraced my words and swallowed. Ok, that had been quite tactless, even by my standards.

'You know, we are out here in the middle of freakin' nowhere. Do you have any idea what we should do now? No transportation. The baddies are looking for us I'm sure. I mean, we did blow that underground lab sky high. And I mean very, very high into the sky.'

Jep that's my way. The easy way. Ignore whatever it is that's going on and just talk about something else! Luckily, I'm good at that.

I had turned the dead kangeroo over and felt down its tummy. It was flat and furry. No pouch. No baby. Pfew.

'Roo's clear Ro!' Heh, just had to say that.

'Oh.' Did he sound, disapointed? 'Must be a young female or a male then, I guess...

'Sure. Whatever.'

I was getting tired of this game. No time to linger.

'So, any suggestions? We need to crash somewhere. You haven't slept for ages, I'm getting a bit wacky and we need to be focussed to get us out of this situation in one piece.'

I hopped onto the crinkled hood of the junky car and avoided looking at Heero's face that was being illuminated in a spooky yet intriguing way by the torch he had placed on a nearby boulder. Looked kind of nice actually. Showing contours. Almost made me wish I'd taken an art course at the last school I'd been at.

He would have made a nice model...

'We can use one of the caves around here to get some down time and tomorrow we should walk to the national park station that should be less than 30 miles from here.'

I nodded my approval of the plan. Caves were good protection and often difficult to find in a quick sweep.

'Yeah, I think they said all outback stations in this area are abandoned. There should be some means of transportation left behind, Right? Or if there's a radio, we could flag Quat. He's nearby somewhere... I think.'

Now it was Heero's time to consent. He grunted. Ah, the sweet sound of approval.

As if on cue we jumped into action, collecting whatever we thought essential and stuffing it into two ratty army back packs that were slowly rotting away in the back of the car. Lovely old things. Lovely.

Especially when they contained hairy legged spiders the size of my palm. Wiggly legs and all. I just don't like them very much. Even the non poisonous ones can have a nasty bite.

40 minutes of stumbling in the dark later found us at the entrance of a small cave that was gouged out of the side of a rocky hill. We were quite lucky to have even spotted them, low as they were.

The cave opening was about knee high and looked very unappealing to me, but Heero dropped his pack, took a long look around the area and started crawling inside. It wasn't far from the crash site, I could still see the car in the distance with my bonoculairs. But in this rough terrain, we really should have a light if we wanted to get through this without broken bones.

Although I'm sure Heero would be able to set them again.

Now that would be some intimate bonding I'd rather skip. I'll set your bones if you can pop that dislocated hip back in for me, gee, tanx buddy!

No Thanks.

'There are some bones in here but it's dry, doesn't smell too bad and it's even quite warm,' came the report from inside the rock.

I shrugged out from under my pack, dropping it down next to Heero's, and began shoving both bags into the crack he had just crawled into. 'I'm taking first watch. You get some sleep.'

Another affirmitive grunt. Wow. He must really be tired.

I heard some rummaging sounds indicating Heero was going through his pack, but soon all was quiet. Or as quiet as a desert gets, there were lots of buzzing and croaking things around.

I positioned myself lying in the entrance of the cave, on a ratty old blanket that provided at least a little comfort on the uneven ground. I tried very hard to ignore the strange smell of old decay and dried out animal waste. Or I guess that was what I smelled. I'm pretty sure it wasn't Heero in any case.

The itching began after about half an hour.

When a flea hopped into my nose, I knew what sort of trouble we had landed ourselves in this time.

'Ow for Christ's sake!' I grumbled under my breath. I kept quiet for a moment, listening for any sounds from Heero. Nope. Nothing.

Ok, if he could take it, I definitely could! I survived worse flea attacks than this! That and they did't seem to like me much. I felt one half hearted bite on my hand, but the rest just liked jumping around in my face.

Another two hours later found me scanning the surroundings again with the small pair of binoculars I had 'borrowed' from the research facilities. I mean, it would have gotten blown up. I saved it!

Duo, killer of kangaroos, savior of binoculars, and playground for fleas. My life is one big adventure, people!

Wonderful.

The mental sarcams scattered as soon as my ears picked up the sound of the chopper.

It was flying low. I could tell, the rock formations above me blocked the view of it, and the sound reverberated through the valley we were facing. This mission just kept getting better and better.

I'd really hoped we had damaged enything that could be used to hunt us down from the air. In our haste to blow up all mobile suits we must have missed that damn chopper. Or maybe they called it in from somewhere? A miscalculation in any case. And a potentially deadly one at that.

A few minutes later, after I crawled further back into the little cave, I think I understood how a sardine must feel in its can. Well, if it wouldstillbealive of course. Now that was an disturbing image. Imagine opening a can of live sadines. Yuch!

I heard Heero shuffle a little behind the packs.

'Hey buddy, you awake back there?'

'Yes. Is that a chopper I hear?'

Of course he was awake. I wasn't sure if he'd actually ever slept.

Ah, the sound must be muffled back there. It must be killing him not to be able to see what's happening, I thought with glee. He had to trust me now. And that felt very, very good, heh heh.

The chopper came in sight at just that moment and out of reflex I crouched down some more.

The searchlight followed the dirt road we had traveled on just hours before, swept over the hillsides sporadically.

I held my breath as they neared the place where the car must still be, crashed against the rock. That would tip them off that we were somewhere around. Shit, shit, shit, shit! Should have hidden it, dammit!

But where could we have hidden a thing that large? There was nothing to hide us, let alone a whole car.

The moment the searchlight bathed the car in white light, I was holding my breath. It went over it with great care but there were many shadows caused by the searchlight bouncing of rocks, boulders and stubby bushes.

It should be nearly impossible for them to tell if we were still in the vehicle, dead or injured.

Then an earsplitting whistle sounded and I dropped my jaw as I saw a rocket launch from the chopper, and the car, rock and roo dissapeared into a roaring ball of fire. They were very thorough, that's for sure!

And very stupid if they though we would've been killed by a stupid car accident! I couldn't believe our luck though.

If they had caught up to us on the road, we'd been sitting ducks! Ducky dust probably, judging by the explosion. Or minced duck.

I felt my heartbeat in my chest as I thought about the near catastophe. I thanked the spirit of the dead kangaroo. I wanted to dance around the rock that ended the life of our car's engine.

I heard Heero shifting again behind the packs, but ignored the sound. It was a good thing he was back there or I might have hugged him.

And then he would have killed me.

The helicopter landed and I watched in facination as a few guys hopped out of the thing, armed to the teeth, and started searching the debris.

So they weren't completely stupid after all.

They pointed at some parts and I think one of them nodded.

With the binoculars I could make out some more details and almost started laughing when two guys were gesturing to a piece of what appeared to be a chunk of barbecued meat.

The poor kangaroo was buying us a safety ticket. Pieces of the unfortunate animal had been strewn all over the place with parts of the car. And they thought it was us!

Within a few minutes they had packed themselves back into the chopper and were leaving the valley, and us, the hell alone.

Only then I dared pull one of the packs aside and let Heero crawl to the front. It was almost dawn anyway, we should get going while the enemy still thought we were dead.

I told Heero what I observed and told myself it was relief I saw in his eyes as well. But I'm sure most of it was annoyance that he had been in the back and missed all the action scenes.

Then as the first light came creeping into the valley we downed some water and a protein bar,

Packet up whatever we used and started our 30 mile hike.

It was only after the sun had completely risen above the rocky hills around us that I noticed something very strange about Heero.

He had a load of little red spots on his face, neck and hands.

'Dude, what happend to you?'

I knew what had happened, flea attack, but I wondered if he did.

'There was a dead thing in the cave. It was aparently still harbouring some fleas,' he grudgingly shared with me.

I could see him looking at me from the corner of his eye. Probably checking if I was marked as well. I grinned at him and nodded. 'Yeah, I met some of the little buggers. Kept playing tag on my face...'

He stared at me now.

'Then why-?' He let his question trail of.

Hehe. Yes, why hadn't I been bitten?

'They don't seem very interested in my blood for some reason.' I said it as nonchalant as I could muster, trying not to smirk, but it still sounded smug to me. Heh, well, too bad. For once, I wasn't the one that was off balance all the time.

I was in my element. The outback was nothing compared to L2 on a good day!

Heero just did his grunting thing and we walked on again.

By the time we reached a small road and caught sight of the old cattle station in the distance, the sun was already dipping behind the hills again.

Near the old homestead was quite a large body of water. It seemed to be a lower area with trees and shrubs that had recently been flooded and now looked like an oasis in the desert. Well, it actually was an oasis.

Flocks of birds were flying over the hunched trees. One time I ducked down just in time to avoid getting hit by a whole flock of green feathered monsters flying up from between the grass.

'Budgies,' The smartass told me.

It looked like a little paradise. I even say white and pink parrots flying past.

Tired and beat after a day of walking in the chill wind over rough terrain, we stumbled onto what must have once been a parking area. It looked more like a field of weird prickly bushes now.

My senses immediately made me aware of the presence of someone else in the area. Heero must also have seen or heard something as he stopped in his tracks as well. We glanced at each other and then around and finally noticed a little black dot next to one of the distant buildings.

It soon became a bigger dot. A barking dot.

A huge black dog with grey freckled paws and a white tail tip came running at us. The hairs of its back were standing on end and the tail pointed skywards as well.

Aggression, my brain supplied. Jup, living on the streets taught you a lot about basic dog body language. Luckily Heero seemed familiar with dogs as well as he also froze in place.

Then a silhouette of a man came walking up behind the dog, slowly getting closer.

'Connor, you silly git. Stop behaving like a freakin terrorist and come back here! If they wanted something from me they would've shot you by now!' The man the voice belonged to must have been over 70. He sported a fuzzy grey beard and used a large stick to aid him in his walk. Even though he seemed pretty much all right without it, in my opinion.

Maybe it was his weapon of choice then?

The dog stopped barking, but kept circling us, never averting his eyes.

'Hello fellows! What brings you all the way out here and without any proper transportation. You know that's not very wise? You should be glad it's only just turning into springtime.'

I put on my most amiable grin and shrugged a shoulder, making the dog growl a warning. His master didn't call him back so I figured he was suspicous, more than he let on in any case.

'Why we're here is our business.' Heero volunteered in a snarky tone, and I felt like growling at him.

'Fool! We needed help. Why behave like that now? This man is no threat to us.' I hissed at him from between my teeth. The only response I got was a quick flick of his eyes in my direction.

'You army?' The old guy asked, his face looking us up and down suspiciously.

'No, no we're not army people. We're, ah, on the run from them actually.' I could feel Heero's eyes bore holes into my skull. My suspicions were right though.

The man's face lit up and he snapped his fingers. The dog walked over to him and sat down at his side. 'Good boy, stay put.'

He turned his gaze on us again and I relaxed. I heard Heero blow out a breath as well.

'Everyone that's running from the army is welcome here. The enemy of my enemy is my friend and all that sort of nonsense,' the old Man said, and he waved us over.

'This grumpy guy is Connor, he's my mate out here. Not many people around these days as you probably know. He's harmless, unless I'm threatened. Just let that be a warning and a comfort, whatever you choose it to be.'

The dog stood and sniffed at Heero's pants and then mine for a moment before trotting back to the buildings.

'Follow me, youngsters! Let's handle introductions where there are less mozzies.' Hhe winked at me and added, 'It seems your grumpy friend over there has already been dined upon.'

I grinned and heard a soft growl escape Heero. I looked at him, my eyebrows raised in surprise. He glared and I grinned again.

'No, no mossies. Fleas. We camped out in a cave nearby.'

The roaring laugh of the old guy startled Heero and I almost laughed at his wide eyed expression when he wirled around and pointed a finger at us. He must have had bad eyesight or he just ignored Heero's twitching gesture towards his gun.

'You guys are not from around, that's for sure! Those caves are dying grounds for roos and echidnas and they always leave some mourners behind!'

'So we noticed.' Heero grumbled.

'Seems to me they like you.' The old man said, smirking at Heero.

I extended my hand. 'I'm Max, this is Ro, err, Roy.' Heero glared at me again.

'He seems feisty enough.' The old bugger said, leaning on his stick. I'm John. But everyone calles me different names, so I listen to most of what you can come up with I'm sure.'

I think my smile was just about real this time. It seemed like we had hit the jackpot and found ourselves a second Howard; an Australian outback version, that is.

I happily dropped my backpack next to the door after we followed John inside. 'Say Johnny boy, you don't happen to have a radio here, have you?'

He grinned back at me. 'Sure do. Use it if you want to, just avoid frequency 3 and 5- they're army. 1 is the resistance one. I like to listen in on that one once in a while.' He told me with a wink. 'It's all local of course.'

Heero signalled me that he would go and send a message to Quatre, hopefully, telling him where to pick us up.

I guessed that staying here would not be a problem, until we reached someone that could pick us up. I looked forward to teasing Heero to the brink of self destruction about being eaten by fleas. I guess everyone has his weakness, heh heh... Even Heero Yuy.

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A/N2: I couln't bring myself to write in a little orphaned Joey because it would have ended up very, very angsty. I can promise that even though they're terribly cute, when they are just brought in you'd wish they still had their mom. So I guess this was inspired by my honeys Dapper & Jasper – victims of modern (human) technology.


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